2. Former life

In my previous life I was a normal guy, an average Joe, nothing that stands out, I wasn't special or had any particular skills in any area, I was just me.

A normal childhood, with very few friends, since I was bullied most of my life, I guess that is also why I was in such poor health. Overweight and not in

any kind of shape that you could imagine. I had a job that I somewhat enjoyed, but nothing that really truly spoke to me. Dont get me wrong, I had some great collegues, but the job itself was never a passion.

Sounds kind of depressing now that I'm writing this, but that was my life. Day in and day out, just trudging along on the road that is my life.

I had dreams like many others, I dreamt of traveling, of discovering, actually my biggest dream was exploring the stars, but since space travel isn't a thing besides games and movies, that was never going to happen.

Though luckily or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, everything changed one day, the day that I died.

Driving home from work in my beat up car, I started to feel ill, sweating, headache and tightness in the chest. You see where this is going?

Yep, I was having a heart attack, while driving home. I guess I thought about the few friends I had left, my remaining family, and how I would miss them.

It all seemed to happen so fast, just driving along, pain, darkness, the sounds of a crash and then nothing.

The darkness seemed to comfort me, I had never felt this weightlessness before, just floating around. There was no physical body to be concerned about, no pain, no uncomfortable sensation from all the weight I had carried all my life, only peace.

I can't explain how I knew I was dead, but it seemed like the darkness gave me an understanding, helped me accept. Like it wanted me to let go of it all, just make peace with everything.

But I started to regret my life, the one life you get and all I had to show for it was exactly nothing. Nothing! I thought about my family, I imagined how their life would be, I hope they will live happily and content.

I wish I could have had a life where I could be somebody, somebody who could help people, someone who could make things, things that helped people. Affect the lives of the people around me in a positive way.

I wished I had someone special in my life, I wish I had closer friends, that I wasn't so awkward in social situations. But that was all too late now, there was nothing I could do, death had taken me.

Time doesn't matter in this space or whatever this is, so I have no idea how long I was here, but one day, I saw lights flickering, a halo of light that seemed to be getting closer.

A giant glowing black hole, a circle and a disc, like in Interstellar, it was massive, on a scale like nothing I had ever seen before. At first there was no sound, and it seemed so far away, everywhere around me there was only darkness, but slowly I got closer and closer, until I neared the edge of the golden circle.

The whooshing sound started to fill my very being as I got closer and closer, it filled my entire vision until I flew along the edge of the disc, it was filled with souls! The glow was from all the souls that were circling it, I don't know how I knew, but I did. I felt myself get pulled along the disc at speeds I couldn't describe, I constantly felt like my mind was drifting, like I was losing who I was, but I kept my mind centered, I kept reminding myself of who I was. If I had to guess, this place was cleaning all the souls of who and what they were, before going into the darkness.

I tried to steer myself, closer and closer to the darkness. If I were to stay here I was afraid I would lose my sense of self, the very core of who I am. I passed so many golden souls, they were like small shooting stars with a tail of gold after each. Slowly, ever so slowly going around and around the Black Hole, the souls got brighter and brighter, and finally I neared the edge of it all, it was darkness like none I had ever experienced before, and just as I got over the edge of the darkness, it felt like going through a barrier and then falling, being pulled even faster than before towards, something.

I don't know why I wasn't afraid. It seems in this space, fear doesn't matter, you're already dead, so what could possibly happen?

As I was pulled through the void, speeding up to greater and greater speeds, I started to lose consciousness, it was too much! All the lights passing through and flying past me.

At insane speeds, what seemed like worlds, galaxies seemed to fly past, just before I lost consciousness time seemed to slow down as I flew past a great floating land mass with a great golden castle. It was beyond beautiful, that was the last thing I remembered before I finally blacked out completely.

The sound of a big breath being taken in can be heard.

I woke up to a cold feeling on my back, making me cry out, my emotions seemed completely out of whack. The sudden sensation of skin, the feeling of something touching me, it felt almost like flames burning me, but somehow cold, it seemed so long since I felt the sensation of touch. Something was flailing in my view, small arms, my eyes almost popped out of my head, and fear gripped me and overwhelmed my other emotions.

Those were the arms and hands of a child! MY ARMS AND HANDS !!!

I looked around me, while trying to get up, but I felt so weak, like I could barely lift my head, but moving my head to the sides I could see it was a cemetery, and I was lying on some kind of altar!

I looked to my left and saw a scarred and black sotted man coming towards me, I felt scared all over again, he looked like someone evil! He raised a stick towards me, is he going to hit me with it???!??, and started muttering words, and a light started to shine around me. Shock tore through me! Was that a.. a ... A WAND ! Is he doing magic?!?

Wait, wait wait wait!... The scars, the limp, the crazy rotating eye, isn't that Mad Eye Moody? Holy crap, I think I'm in the potter verse!

Moody looked at the child, he was just staring at him with a shocked look, it looked almost funny, and sort of cute. Though he would never admit it, and he did not smile, not at all! The aurors around him smirked at the sight, but hurried away, and cleaned the site of the dark magic left over, and took care of their dead.

Moody conjured a blanket and wrapped it around the child, and scooped him up. "Schh schh schhhh, it's going to be okey little lad, you won't remember this! OBLIVIATE".

I felt the magic wash over me and try to dislodge my memories loose, it felt like a very weak version of the sensation when I was flying around the black hole, so I was able to ignore it.

Moody carried me away from the cemetery, followed by two aurors behind him. I just couldn't take my eyes away from him, I mean, I'm in the Harry Potter universe!

OH GOD I'M IN THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE !! Voldemort is here! Death eaters, bad guys EVIL!! Crying out, hyperventilating, but the rocking seemed to finally calm me down, I had to focus, this is where I am now, nothing can change that! I must make the best of it!

Moody was surprisingly gentle towards me, not at all how I would imagine him being.

He walked along the paths, and into a small village, Hogsmeade was a beautiful village in its own right, Moody walked into The Three Broomsticks, he nodded at Rosmerta who was busy serving the last customers of the night, he carried me through the bar and stopped at a fireplace, he grabbed some powder and threw it into the fire, "St Mungo's" he spoke, walking into the fire I felt it around us and suddenly we were in a new place.

The two aurors didn't follow us, it seems St Mungos was a safe place, he carried me up to the desk, and spoke with one of the healers before handing me over. He left after that.

What followed was examinations by the healers, they looked perplexed by their findings, and their examinations but they simply talked amongst themselves, and that seemed to be that for now.

A Lot happened that day at Sct. Mungos, I saw members of the Order of the Phoenix. It seems they somehow knew what had happened to me, and were discussing what to do. At one point I even saw Rufus Scrimgeour, he peeked into the room I was in, it was a small single room for short term patients. Many different healers, unspeakables and even Dumbledore, came by and cast different magic on me, they all left perplexed and slightly worried. The last examination I had was late at night, I was exhausted and was fed potions to sleep, so all the examinations were mostly done while I was half drugged slipping in and out of consciousness. Dumbledore walked into my room with two people with him, one was a much younger man with a small beard, and the other looked beyond ancient, he reminded me of how Nicolas Flamel looked like in the movies.

Flamel and the younger guy each stepped forward, in my drugged up mind I was struggling to make heads or tails of anything, small things just kept waving in my vision, but I was unable to either stand up or speak. Flamel started to cast magic on me that prickled my skin, I felt warmth and a feeling of calm came over me, followed by lights dancing around me. Flamel scrunched up his face and sighed "I'm sorry Albus, but there is nothing I can find that can help us further. How he is able to live is beyond my understanding, all that I know, all my knowledge tells me that he shouldn't be able to live, but here he is, bursting with more magic than most adults!". He stepped back and the younger guy stepped up, he looked at me with a strained smile, he started chanting and waving his wand through the air above me, as he did blue light started appearing from the dots on my body, and a golden glow from my head, I didn't actually see any of this, but the others did.

Dumbledore and Flamel exclaimed both in surprise at seeing the lights and feeling the familiar power emanating from my body, they were both in awe.

The younger of the three stopped his chant and turned to look at the other two wizards beside him "Albus, Nicolas, he is not tainted by any dark magic, he is pure, like all children are, the ritual that bastard Lestrange did on him, turned him into something more, but it isn't dangerous. We must place him in a home, he CANNOT go to an orphanage! We must find somewhere safe for him, he was once the vessel of the Dark Lord, but no longer, something happened even I cannot explain, but one thing is for certain if any of the remaining death eaters learn of him, they will do whatever they can to recapture him! Even though the Dark Lord was beaten tonight he is not safe".

All deep in thought, they started discussing the possible actions they could do, none of them were able to foster the kid, so they needed someone else, but who?